Verizon Remains DJIA’s Worst Performing Stock for 2017

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) last week saw its share price dip by $0.09 (about 0.2%) to retain its position as the worst-performing stock among the 30 equities included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. For the year to date, Verizon’s shares are down 13%. However, Chevron is closing in as oil prices drop and now shows a loss for the year of 12.65%.

Verizon’s stock price fell to a new 52-week low of $44.46 in the week ending May 19 but has managed to add nearly 4.9% since then.

The telecom giant closed its $4.5 billion acquisition of Yahoo last week and the company is expected to take a pretax charge of about $500 million in the second quarter related to severance payments and other acquisition and integration costs.

Verizon is expected to shave about 2,000 jobs (15% of a total of around 14,000) at its newly named Oath subsidiary, comprised of Yahoo and AOL, which Verizon purchased about two years ago. Verizon said it expects to save more than $1 billion in operating costs through 2020 as a result of the Yahoo deal.

Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) announced a new offer last week targeted specifically at Verizon wireless customers. Sprint is offering a full year of unlimited voice and data service to Verizon customers who bring their own phones as part of the switch.

Verizon stock closed at $46.63 per share on Friday, down less than 0.1% for the day. The stock’s 52-week range is $44.46 to $56.95 and the 12-month consensus price target is $49.79, according to MarketWatch. The company’s dividend yield ended the week down slightly at 4.95%.